


Imagination

by drwhogirl



Category: Supernatural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 17:40:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13081926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drwhogirl/pseuds/drwhogirl
Summary: Gabriel never liked looking back but when he finds out the disastrous effect this has on two children for whom he was their magical, imaginary friend he has to put it right.





	Imagination

“So… I've dug up a pretty hefty paper trail on Alexander Ketch. Birth certificate, U.S. visa and passport, academic records from Kendricks for Arthur and Alexander.” Sam explained as he sat at his laptop with his mountain of research open in a bunch of overlapping windows.

“Sam...” Dean was beginning to get pretty tired of this argument, but Sam just didn’t want to let it rest.

“Dean, I went into the hard drive I took from the Brits' U.S. base. There are academic initiation papers drawn up for both Ketches with Alexander's remaining incomplete.” There would have been no way Ketch could have possibly faked his death and slipped the fake files into the database without someone noticing. Sam was sure of it.

“Okay, I don't care how good this story looks. I ain't buying it.”

“All right. For argument's sake, we know Mom shot Arthur, and we know we dumped his corpse into the waste canal. So even if this is weird, yes, it's weird, but we eat weird every day.”

“Yeah, but there's “Ripley's Believe It or Not!” weird, and then there's weird that's just straight up bull. Now I'm thinking that Ketch weird is door number two.”

“What’s this about Ketch? Ketch who?” Gabriel asked as he walked into the library. Glancing over Sam’s shoulder, all the colour seemed to drain almost instantly from his face. As he read through the academic progress reports for both Alexander and Arthur, Sam watched him with curiosity.

“What do you think?” Sam asked after a minute or two. “Dean thinks Alexander doesn’t exist, I think he’s telling the truth and our prisoner is Alexander though.” Sam explained.

“He does exist and as for your prisoner, there’s only one way to find out. Can I see him?” Sam nodded, standing up and taking the archangel’s hand in a silent show of support as he led him to where Ketch was being held.

Sam walked through the doorway and expected Gabriel to follow him, instead the angel just froze in the doorway. The man sat in front of him was unmistakable. He looked different of course, but it had been years so that wasn’t a surprise and his soul was considerably blacker than Gabriel remembered but it was definitely him. It was definitely Arthur.

“Art?” Gabriel gulped before continuing. “What happened?”

Sam was more than a little surprised by the amount of hatred in the glare that was levelled at Gabriel at that question, but then as far as he’d known until just now the two of them had never met before. “What happened? You dare ask me that after you abandoned us? And don’t you dare call me that. You lost all right to call me that a long time ago.”

“I… I didn’t… I thought you were safe… you were both going off to boarding school… away from your parents.”

Boarding school. That’s when it hit Sam. “Kendricks.”

“Yes, Kendricks where children are beaten and tortured on a daily basis in the name of education. Where the ultimate test of loyalty was to slit the throat of the person you cared about most.” Ketch spat out. A wave of nausea hit Sam at the mere thought.

“Alex…” It hit Gabriel the same time as it hit Sam. Alexander’s academic records were incomplete.

Ketch couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with Gabriel. For all he hated the man stood in front of him for letting them go to Kendricks, just the thought of his brother was enough for the guilt to start eating him alive all over again.

“It’s not your fault Artie.” Gabriel stepped forward.

“Don’t call me that.” Ketch snapped, with only slightly less venom than the last time.

“Alright, that’s enough. Come on Gabe.” Sam could see how much Ketch’s words were eating at Gabriel and decided he needed to bring an end to it. Putting his arm around Gabriel’s waist, Sam gently led him out of the room with little resistance from the archangel in question.

Rather than going back to the library to update Dean, Sam took him to the kitchen. Getting a tub of ice cream from the freezer and passing it and a spoon to Gabriel. Gabriel sat down at the kitchen table and started eating the chocolatey goodness whilst Sam sat opposite him and watched him worriedly.

“Do you want to talk about what happened in there?” Sam asked, Gabriel just shook his head as his mouth was too full of ice cream to reply. “Alright, I’m here to talk if you change your mind.” Sam left Gabriel with his ice cream to go and tell Dean of the day’s developments. Gabriel however barely noticed as he became lost in his own memories.

One day in the mid-1970s, Gabriel was walking through a park in England. He’d just finished drowning a corrupt banker in a swimming pool of loose change and was feeling pretty good about himself, until he heard a child crying.

A glance in the direction of the sound and he could see a little boy sobbing with his ice cream on the floor. He’d been about to shrug it off when a woman, seemingly the boy’s mother, struck the boy around the back of the head. Gabriel couldn’t hear exactly what she said to him but she was obviously scolding him. Another boy ran over and Gabriel could hear him shouting. “Stop hitting Alex! Stop hurting Alex!” She raised her hand to smack the other boy, but Gabriel snapped his fingers and she disappeared.

Gabriel approached the two children, but they seemed mostly alright, so he replaced Alex’s ice cream and went to sort their mother. After that, he became a regular at the Ketch family household. The parents didn’t know he was there, as far as they knew he was just the children’s imaginary friend, but he didn’t care. All he cared about was making sure they no longer hit their children.

This continued until the boys left for boarding school where Gabriel assumed they’d be safe, away from their parents. It was only now he realised just how wrong he was.

Gabriel finished his ice cream and went back to see Ketch. “Where is he?”

“What?”

“Alex. Where’s he buried?” Gabriel asked. He didn’t want to start rooting around inside Ketch’s head, but he needed to know. Needed to pay his respects.

“Why should I tell you?”

“Because if you don’t, I can pull it out of your head. I’m asking to give you the option to keep your secrets.” It was only Ketch’s stubbornness that kept his mouth shut. Gabriel sighed and knocked him out. After a little rooting around, he found where he needed to be. Kensal Green Cemetery.

It didn’t take Gabriel long to find what was apparently the Men of Letters section of the cemetery. Whilst he knew Alexander had to be in one of the earlier graves, he couldn’t help casting his eyes over some of the newer ones. There was a boy, no more than 10 years old, kneeling by one of the graves and sobbing. Gabriel couldn’t help glancing at the name. Michael Davies. Michael. Mick. That was the name he’d seen in Arthur’s head, the name that filled him with so much pain and regret that Gabriel could make out nothing else for the grief. At least now Gabriel had some idea why.

The little boy glanced up at Gabriel, finally sensing his presence. “Are you here to visit Uncle Mick too?” He asked as tears still streamed down his face, each word punctuated by a sound somewhere between a breath and a sob.

“Yeah I am. My name’s Gabriel. What’s yours?”

“Tristan.”

“Is no-one here with you Tristan?” Gabriel couldn’t help asking, he didn’t like the idea of a boy so young out here all by himself. Tristan shook his head in response. “Why not?”

“I don’t have anyone anymore. I’ve never met my Daddy. My mummy is dead and so’s Uncle Mick. I’m all on my own.”

Gabriel wasn’t really sure what to say, this poor boy had no-one and at such a young age. Gabriel would never admit to how much that tugged at his heartstrings. He remembered what it was like. Being all alone at a very young age, though even he was significantly older than this poor boy. As he held the crying child in his arms a thought struck him. Maybe he could help. If he brought back the boy’s Uncle then he wouldn’t be alone anymore, and if it helped his relationship with Arthur then that was just a bonus.

It was about an hour or so later that Tristan finished crying himself out. “Bye Gabriel, it was nice meeting you.”

“Bye Tristan. I’ll see you soon.” The boy smiled at that before running off, to where Gabriel wasn’t sure, but he had every intention on finding out.

For now though, he got to work. It took him about a day of solid work to reconstruct the cremated body and another to slip the relevant soul out of heaven unnoticed. Anyone else there might have been trouble but nobody, not even the angels, cared about a low rung Man of Letters.

Before Mick even woke up, Gabriel flew him back to the Bunker. Tucking the man into one of the spare beds to sleep, he went to find Sam to update him on the situation and be updated in return.

He found out that Castiel was missing and Ketch had escaped and in turn told Sam about resurrecting Mick and asking if he could bring Tristan to live with them. When Sam agreed, he went back to London.

It didn’t take Gabriel long to track Tristan to a derelict and abandoned house. “Gabriel? What are you doing here?”

“I was worried about you. I wanted to take you somewhere safe.” Gabriel explained, kneeling down in front of where the boy was curled up on the floor. It was only as Gabriel looked into his eyes that he noticed something familiar about them, they were mostly green but had flecks of silver scattered throughout. Arthur. He had to be Arthur’s boy. There was no other explanation.

“But mummy said I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”

“I’m not a stranger, you know me and I have a special surprise for you.” Gabriel realised how that would have sounded to any adults who heard it, but luckily it seemed to calm the boy. He nodded and reached out to Gabriel who took the boy into his arms and flew him straight to Mick’s room.

“How did you do that?” Tristan asked. “Wait… Gabriel… are you THE Gabriel?”

“Sure, am Kiddo.”

Tristan was about to say something else when movement from the bed caught his attention. He’d yet to notice the other occupant in the room until he started to stir. “Uncle Mick!”

“Tristan? What? Where?” Mick’s voice was rough and hoarse from disuse but they got the general idea.

“You were dead, the yellow letter told me so, but you’re back! I missed you so much!” The boy threw himself at Mick and the man clung to him like a lifeline.

“I missed you too Tristan.”

Gabriel snuck out to give the two some alone time. As he did so, Sam enveloped him in his arms. “You did a good thing today Gabriel.”

“Yeah whatever.” Gabriel shrugged him off. “I still haven’t seen Alex yet.”

“You can go back later.” Sam told him with a kiss on the head. “For now you look exhausted and should rest.”

 

It was another couple of days before any of them heard from Ketch again. Well.. not Ketch exactly. “Dean.” Castiel’s voice rang out through the phone’s speaker.

“Cas? Where are you?” Dean asked worriedly.

“I don’t know, but we need help.”

“We? Who’s we?” Sam asked.

“Ketch. He’s badly injured but Asmodeus took some of my grace. I don’t have enough to heal him.”

“Why is Ketch with you?” Dean asked suspiciously.

“Asmodeus wanted him to find Jack but he decided to use his position to help me instead.” Castiel explained.

It was at that moment that Gabriel walked in with Mick and Tristan. Seeing the looks on Sam and Dean’s faces he instantly grew concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“Cas needs help, can you find him.” Gabriel nodded, it didn’t take him long to track his brother down and when he did he brought both him and Ketch back to the bunker.

Dean immediately wrapped Castiel in a hug whilst Gabriel placed the injured man on the table. Mick quickly shepherded Tristan out of the room. Sam came to relieve Mick of looking after the boy and Mick went back through to see what was happening.

He still hated Ketch for killing him but at the same time, he couldn’t help feeling worried about him. He looked frankly awful, there was a large gash in his side and his skin was already deathly pale.

Gabriel was firing all sorts of questions at Castiel and clearly didn’t seem to like the answers he was receiving.

“Is there anything you can do?” Mick finally found his voice for long enough to ask.

“No. I don’t have enough grace. I’m still depleted from bringing you back. He was stabbed with Azrael’s blade. It’s not only killing him but destroying his very DNA. Without a living sample to work from, there’s nothing I can do.” Gabriel told him dejectedly.

“So, if you did have a sample, could you save him?”

“In theory, yes. But there isn’t one.”

“Yes there is. Toni confided in me that when Ketch was supposed to kill his brother, they didn’t want to waste the amount of potential Alexander had by killing him. Ketch faced a shifter and it faked his brother’s death. Alexander is still in London.”

Gabriel didn’t need to be told twice. When he came back five minutes later it was with another man. A man who looked just like Ketch when Sam and Dean first found him. In the time Gabriel was gone, he wasn’t surprised that Mick had moved to take Ketch’s hand. Whatever the man felt about his own death, the thought of losing Ketch was apparently enough to push any resentments to the side. For now at least.

Gabriel got to work straight away. To aid the process, he encouraged Alex to take his brother’s other hand whilst Gabriel placed a hand on each brother’s forehead. Alex could feel the energy flowing from the archangel, through himself and into his brother. Like they were all components in an electrical circuit.

They stayed that way for what felt like forever before Ketch’s eyes flickered open, barely focusing on the other people in the room.

“Mick? Alex?” He half expected to be hallucinating but it felt far to real, with Alex holding onto his wrist loosely as if scared to hurt him further whilst Mick was close to breaking his other hand. It definitely felt far too real to be a hallucination.

“We’re here Arthur, get some shuteye.” Ketch nodded at his brother’s suggestion and he felt Mick place a kiss on his forehead and whisper in his ear that he loved him as he drifted back to sleep. In that moment it didn’t matter to him if they were real or a figment of his imagination. They were perfect. Just having them there was heaven.

When he woke up he'd find out they were real. He'd hash things out with Mick and get reacquainted with Alex and even get to meet the son Toni had never told him about, but for now he needed rest. The rest could wait, after all they weren't going anywhere.


End file.
